End the Massachusetts Income Tax citizen initiative is headed for November 2008 ballot!
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New Petitions Are In! Sign to End the Income Tax Now! New Money Bomb set for Memorial Day ! Help fund our signature drive running May 9 - June 9th Many thanks to those who donated in April to help END the Income Tax! Our opposition
will spend millions of dollars to try to defeat us. The good news is we have the winning message: No More Income Tax! |
$100,000
Please help us fund our final required petition drive and donate today! |
DONATE NOW! If you donate $100 or more, we'll send you a new Limited Edition End the Income Tax bumper sticker as our thanks.
Print copies of the new Taxpayers' Choice flyer. Pass it around to voters in Massachusetts.
Need some comic relief after filing your taxes? Watch the tax spoof song video!
Watch the new video: Show Us the Tax Money - and tell your friends about it:
"46% Oppose and 45% Support END the Income Tax Ballot Initiative," Says First 2008 Poll
"A dead heat among the Commonwealth's residents." That's what State House News Service called opposition and support for our END the Income Tax Ballot Initiative. With a 4.8% margin of error, their polling revealed that 46% of Massachusetts voters oppose the ballot initiative. 45% support ENDing the Massachusetts state income tax. 9% are undecided. Source: State House News Service Poll, January 2008
Latest Press Coverage:
Tax repeal effort worries Beacon Hill (mistakenly refers to us as 'Coalition for Small Government') Eagle Tribune New: April 20, 2008
This week's Boston Business Journal informal poll is asking “Anyone want a tax hike?” New: April 17, 2008
Boston Herald column by Howie Carr:
Tell tax-happy pols to keep mitts off your income New: April 16, 2008
Berkshire Eagle: Foes target income tax repeal effort
CommonWealth Magazine / MassINC: Voters get another shot at erasing the state income tax
State House News Service covers Gov. Patrick's latest attack on Ending the Income Tax
Public School Teachers Union Magazine Editorializes Against ENDing the Income Tax
Boston Globe column by Jeff Jacoby: A resolution: Abolish the income tax
Boston Herald column by Howie Carr:
Hackerama, be afraid, be very afraid (there is a charge to access full text)
Swampscott Reporter: Massachusetts Teachers Union tries to knock End the Income Tax off the ballot
Boston Globe: Activists again propose vote to end income tax
Sun Journal: Question would eliminate Massachusetts' income tax
Simple economics: Ohio legislators seek to kill off state's income tax
New: April 20, 2008
Exciting News for You - from Carla Howell and Michael Cloud
Dear Friend,
If it were possible to End the Income Tax in Massachusetts… would you want it?
What if Ending the Income Tax in Massachusetts had nearly a 50/50 chance of winning in 2008?
What if this End the Income Tax Ballot Initiative could set in motion copycat Ballot Initiatives in 4 or 8 or 12 more states in 2010 and 2012?
If this were the first step in dismantling Big Government in America, if you could help make it happen, would you want in?
It is possible. But don't take our word for it.
Just look over the amazing but true facts, figures, and information.
Because when you learn what we've learned, you'll be as excited as we are.
Three Surprising Massachusetts Vote Results
1980 : Ronald Reagan for President won Massachusetts with 1,057,631 votes.
1984 : Ronald Reagan again won Massachusetts – this time with 1,310,936 votes.
2002 : Our first End the Income Tax Initiative in Massachusetts got 885,683 votes – 45.3%. We did it with volunteers, a small budget, and advertising spending of less than $89,000.
All in Massachusetts. The state that elected and re-elected Teddy Kennedy, John Kerry, and Mike Dukakis.
What's going on? What was behind Ronald Reagan winning the Massachusetts Presidential vote twice? And what was behind our 45.3% vote to End the Income Tax?
We'll tell you about that in just a couple of minutes. But first…
Our Ballot Initiative Ends the Income Tax
No tax on wages . No tax on interest or dividends . No tax on capital gains . No Income Tax .
Our Small Government Act to End the Massachusetts Income Tax Ballot Initiative is a bold first step to make government small.
We've formed the Committee For Small Government to do this, and we're heading for the November 2008 ballot. We collected 100,000 raw signatures between September and November of 2007 and turned them in to the state Elections Division by the deadline on December 4th. They approved 76,084 of those signatures - only 66,593 were needed to surmount the major hurdle we faced to make the ballot.
Now the campaign is ready to really fly. To give 3,000,000 taxpayers in Massachusetts an opportunity to END the income tax - forever.
But why is this important? Why try to repeal the income tax?
What Are the Benefits of Ending the Income Tax in Massachusetts?
1. Our Ballot Initiative will give back over $3,600 each to over 3,000,000 Massachusetts workers. $3,600 average. Each worker. Not just once. Every year.
2. It will take $11 Billion out of the hands of Massachusetts Big Government – and put it back into the hands of the men and women who earned it. Not just once. Every year.
3. In productive, private hands this $11 Billion a year will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in Massachusetts.
4. This will force the state legislature to streamline and cut the waste out of the Massachusetts state budget.
5. This will force the state legislature to get rid of the failed, flawed government programs that don't work – and often make things worse.
6. It'll make the state legislature accountable to Massachusetts workers and taxpayers – instead of the government employees, lobbyists, and special interests who profit from high government spending.
7. With less government and no income tax, Massachusetts will become a magnet to private, productive businesses and individuals. More good jobs and more good workers.
Wouldn't these benefits get you to the polls on Election Day in 2008?
Does Ending the state Income Tax Go Too Far?
Ending the Massachusetts Income Tax would roll back the state government spending 39% -- to the 1995 budget.
Between 1990 and 2007, the population of Massachusetts rose from 6 million residents to 6.5 million. In 17 years, the population increased 8.3%.
During the same period, Massachusetts state government spending more than DOUBLED.
During the same period, most city and town government spending also more than DOUBLED .
Reducing state government spending by only 39% leaves the state government more than it needs.
Can We Get Serious News Coverage For This?
We already have!
In 2002, we got very little TV, radio, or newspaper coverage the last time.
Why? What's different this time?
Last time, the Mainstream News Media didn't believe us. They thought we were deluded Don Quixotes – tilting at windmills.
Political pundit Jim Braude told his TV and radio audiences that we wouldn't get over 20% of the vote. He once predicted it would get only 7% of the vote
Look at the 2002 polls.
The Boston Globe's last pre-election poll on our End the Income Tax initiative claimed that the Yes vote would be 34%.
The WHDH-TV News/Suffolk University poll showed our Yes vote at 34%.
The Boston Herald's poll showed the Yes vote polling at 25%.
All 3 polls claimed to be accurate to within 5%.
But on Election Day, we got 885,683 votes. 45.3% of the vote. Why were all the polls so wrong – and so low?
After Election Day 2002, over 300 newspapers reported our astonishing results . They expressed shock that 45% of the voters voted to End the Income Tax in Massachusetts. In the home of Ted Kennedy, Mike Dukakis, and John Kerry.
Last time, the mainstream media wrote us off. They didn't think a bold reduction in taxes had a chance. But our 45% vote changed everything.
Plus, Presidential candidate Ron Paul's Internet buzz, infectious excitement, and continuous promotion and publicity show that it is possible to generate a huge buzz - with or without equitable mainstream media coverage.
The New Media. The Blogs, websites, and Internet activists will cover us. Internet reporters will drive mainstream and old media into covering us more.
Just as they did for Ron Paul's Presidential Campaign .
Why the New Media of the Internet May Make a Huge Difference
in our Initiative to End the Income Tax
Good News: There are more than 2,000 Internet News Media outlets we can reach out to who are receptive and responsive to our Small Government Mission to End the Income Tax in Massachusetts. Free market, business emphasis, small government, supply side, fiscal conservative, tax cutter, and constitutionalist - websites, blogs, columnists, and other magnificent disturbers of the peace.
Great News: The Ron Paul for President Campaign is a shining case study of Self-Starter/Entrepreneurial activism. Activism did not trickle down from the campaign to the Internet. It percolated up from the Internet to the campaign.
Ron Paul's bold, small government message and mission excited and ignited tens of thousands of Internet activists. They organized and activated themselves. They launched their own promotions of Ron Paul for President.
Blogs. YouTube. Websites.
Michael Cloud and other campaign team members are closely followed this incredible Internet activism. We can model, adopt, and adapt the best stuff we find. We'll ask for advice. Share what we learn. And build on what others are doing. More importantly, so can our supporters.
The Ron Paul for President Campaign demonstrated that small government ideas attract and involve hundreds of thousands of young people who have never been involved in politics. It is reviving and re-energizing people who nearly lost hope in the cause of individual freedom.
Why Ronald Reagan and Ending the Income Tax
both did far better than expected in Massachusetts
A little earlier, we said we'd tell you why.
Blue Collar Workers. Working Class Voters. They are productive, contributing members of society. Ronald Reagan appealed to their common sense about government. So did we.
Blue collar workers know that government is wasteful. They know that “every tax cut is a pay hike.” Huge numbers of them voted for Reagan – and they voted “Yes” to End the Income Tax in Massachusetts.
There's more.
How You Benefit From Getting Involved
You may not live in Massachusetts. Many of our best supporters don't.
If you live outside Massachusetts, you won't get the direct benefit of not having to pay the state income tax.
Why should you get involved? Why should you donate money so that Massachusetts workers can end their Income Tax?
So you can make history. So you can be a vital part of “the Tax Revolution Heard ‘Round the World.”
It's more than bragging rights. More than pride. It's your chance to be part of the new American Revolution For Small Government.
There's more.
California's Proposition 13 inspired copycat Tax Limitation Ballot Initiatives in over a dozen states. From 1978 through the mid-1980's, tax limitation fever swept the United States.
Term Limits Ballot Initiatives caught fire in the mid-1980's. They burned bright for a half—dozen years.
Medical Marijuana Ballot Initiatives exploded into public attention in the mid-1990's. Only the active resistance of the DEA and the Federal Government has kept a lid on them.
Ballot Initiatives against Eminent Domain swept America in 2006. More are on the way.
Imagine that our Massachusetts Ballot Initiative to End the Income Tax wins in 2008. Partly because you helped make it possible. Imagine inspiring and instigating copycat Ballot Initiatives to Repeal the Income Tax in 4 or 8 or 12 more states in 2010 and 2012.
You can help set this in motion.
How You Can Make a Real Difference
We're headed for the ballot! But we have lots of bills to pay after collecting and turning in 100,000 raw petition signatures.
Then we need to build our advertising budget - to make sure every voter in Massachusetts knows about this great opportunity to END the Income Tax.
The Massachusetts Teachers Union, along with a host of others who rake profits from the state budget, promise to run a "vigorous" campaign against our End the Income Tax ballot initiative. They will spend millions of dollars to protect their gravy train. We need to show voters why they will be much better off with no income tax, with a smaller, more effective state government, and with more money in their family budget.
Will you help us?
We are thrifty and frugal. As careful with your money as you are. As we proved last time, dollar for dollar, we give you more bang for the buck for your donation.
Great News – and an Amazing Opportunity for You
There is no limit on how much you can donate to a ballot initiative in Massachusetts. Can you, will you please donate $1,500 today to help us get our message out?
Or will you please donate $750 today to help End the Income Tax? Your $750 donation today will make a big difference.
If you can and will make a donation of this level, thank you.
But maybe you're one of the hundreds of readers on a tight budget. Many of our best supporters are.
Over 40% of our supporters donate $65 or $85, $25 or $45 when they can. These 40% were vital and indispensable to our extraordinary results with our last End the Income Tax Ballot Initiative. Are you one of these terrific individuals?
Will you help us? We need you and your contribution to help make this happen.
Can you, will you please donate $65 or $85, $25 or $45 today? Will you please help now?
Join us, and make history. Help us dismantle Big Government.
Please donate now by credit card by clicking here.
Or please write your check or money order out today and mail it to:
The Committee For Small Government
PO Box 5268
Wayland, Massachusetts 01778
Your donation is our budget. Please donate generously. Please donate now.
Thank you.
With your active help, small government is possible,
Carla Howell and Michael Cloud
The Committee For Small Government,
Sponsor of the 2008 Massachusetts END the Income Tax ballot initiative